16th Sunday of the Year (c)
This Week’s Liturgy Calendar.
Ordinary Season of the Year. (c)
Weekdays – Year 1
Sunday 21st July: 16th Sunday of the Year. (c)
The first reading is from the Book of Genesis. When Abraham offered hospitality to three strangers, he did not know that he was entertaining God, himself, who would reward him with good news. His wife would bear him a child.
The second reading is from the Letter to the Colossians. Paul, a minister of the good news of the calling of the non-Jewish people to salvation, suffers for his converts. He speaks of the mystery of Christ, our hope and our glory.
The Gospel contrasts Martha’s activity and Mary’s quiet devotion to the Lord.
Monday 22nd July: Feast of St. Mary Magdalene.
Mary Magdalene was one of the first to meet the risen Christ. There has been much confusion through the Church’s history as to her real identity. Some thought she was the Mary who washed the Lord’s feet with her tears, others Mary of Bethany, the sister of Martha and Lazarus. It is accepted now that she was one of the good women who followed Jesus and she is named as one of those standing at the foot of the cross when others had fled. Very little is known about her life.
Tuesday 23rd July: Feast of St. Bridget.
St. Bridget is the patron saint of Sweden. She was born in 1304. From a very early age, she devoted her life to Christ in prayer. She married a Swedish Prince and was totally committed as a wife and as mother. On his death, she founded a convent and this was the beginning of new order of nuns – the Bridgettines. Initially men and women lived in separate buildings but used the same church in a ‘double monastery’. She died in Rome in 1373.
Wednesday 24th July: Wednesday in 16th week of the year.
The provision of the manna and the quails is again a sign of God’s continuing care for his people. It is given to the people in response to their complaining about being deserted in the wilderness.
In the Gospel, we have the parable of the sower and the seed. It is a story of growth and contrast. Some seeds perish, other produce fruit.
Thursday 25th July: Feast of St. James
James was the son of Zebedee and the brother of St. John. He was a Galilean by birth and, by trade, a fisherman, along with his father and brother. With Peter and John, he formed a special grouping within the apostles – witnessing the healing of Peter’s mother, the raising of Jairus’ daughter, the transfiguration and the agony in the garden. He was the first of the apostles to die for his faith around the year 42/43. He was buried in Jerusalem but according to Spanish tradition, his relics were transferred to Compostella in Spain around 800. This not accepted by all scholars.
Friday 26th July: Memorial of St. Joachim and St. Anne.
Details about Joachim and Anne are sketchy and found only in apocryphal literature. In one of these it is claimed that Mary’s birth was miraculous because Joachim and Anne were sterile There were originally two feasts but they were combined in 1969.The feast is celebrated on the day that the basilica in honour of St. Anne was dedicated in Constantinople in the year 550
Saturday 27thJuly: Saturday in 16th week of the year.
Having received the commandments, Moses gathers the people together and they make their covenant with God. They promise to obey the laws he has given them.
Another parable from Jesus reminds us that the evil and the good will live side by side until the time of final judgement.
